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Tuesday, June 7, 2011

I recently had the pleasure of reading Bossypants by Tina Fey. The experience was a stand out for several reasons.

First, I read it while traveling alone. Alone, gloriously alone! Alone as in no one else to feed, clean up after, care for or even be nice to in the airport or on the plane. Come to think of it, I probably could have read War & Peace and been happy. (Though I feel certain that Tolstoy and I would never be BFFs.)

Secondly, it was my first time to read a book on a Kindle. Though I’ve been preaching that replacing paper books with electronic reading devices is a sure sign of the end times, I actually loved it. The Kindle was my 11-year-old daughter’s. (I say “was” because she will now have to pry it out of my cold, dead hands to get it back.)

Lastly, I like to laugh…a lot. Tina Fey makes me laugh…a lot…and has for years on Saturday Night Live’s Weekend Update, on 30-Rock, in movies and now on paper. (Okay, on digital pages of an electronic reading device. I’m a woman. The right to do frequent 180s on all manner of subjects comes with the uterus.)

While reading Bossypants, I realized that Tina and I share many things in common (see previous uterus comment.) It seems to me that we could be friends. What follows are but seven of the many good reasons why:

#1 - We have matching birth stories. Our daughters were both born in September. (For the record: epidural, vaginal delivery did not poop on the table.*)

#2 – We both love Amy Pohler. (Tina in a “we learned the ropes, paid our dues in Second City together and are now wildly successful comedic peers” kind of way; me in a “Wow, it would have been so cool to have learned the ropes, paid my dues in Second City with you and now be one of your wildly successful comedic peers” kind of way.)

#4 – Tina works with Alec Baldwin. I have a friend who everyone thinks is one of the Baldwin brothers. (Mike, you know who you are.)

#5 – We have a friend in common. Really. This woman has worked at SNL for more than a decade. Actually, I’m just her Facebook friend, but I’m sure that if we had a girls’ night out it would be a total blast. Tina could bring Amy. I could bring my Facebook friend. We could drink wine and swap birth stories. It would be like an episode of Designing Women but much, much funnier. (Facebook friend Gena, you know who you are.)

#6 – We both have gay friends and are rankled by ignorant people who hate all gays with stereotypical abandon. (Gay friends, you know who you are.)

#7 – We both enjoy the use of humorous, parenthetical asides in our writing. (Although, her writing is read by thousands of people in a number one best seller and mine by about 100 or so of my friends and family who’ve “liked” my blog on Facebook but have yet to subscribe.)

In conclusion, in his review of Bossypants Kevin Nguyen says “…Tina Fey remains universally adored: she embodies the hectic, too-many-things-to-juggle lifestyle we all have, but instead of complaining about it, she can just laugh it off.”

ME TOO! Good lord, will the similarities never end? When will I meet this woman whom I’m so obviously meant to hang out with at Starbucks drinking chamomile tea (which we’ll finish only if we feel like it*) and sharing amusing stories about our “hectic, too-many-things-to-juggle lifestyle” while our nannies – (I mean babysitters*) watch our daughters?

In a world where Edie Brickell can end up marrying Paul Simon, (19 years, three kids, no idea about her birth stories) I have to believe there’s some hope, however small, that Tina Fey and I will someday become friends (even if only on Facebook.)

* Footnote: for further clarification on these comments, please read Bossypants by Tina Fey yourself since I do not have express permission to reproduce any portion of her book in this blog… even though I have two friends who work for Little, Brown and Company. (Linda & Nicole, you know who you are.)

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